Survey Research Paper by Elaina Turley

Running Head: SURVEY ANAYLYSIS OF ALUMNI RELATIONS Survey Analysis of Alumni Relations Maddy Bucher Kate Morelli Leslie Schroeder Elaina Turley Katie Wendland December 11, 2014 PRCM 4510 Auburn University

SURVEY ANALYSIS OF ALUMNI RELATIONS

IntroductionPurpose... The purpose of the research described in this report was to provide Auburn University’s College of Liberal Arts Office of Development with information regarding which events and activities interest recent alumni of the College of Liberal Arts and ultimately promote their return to and involvement on Auburn University’s campus. Initial research instructions and general information about the client were distributed to the research team on Tuesday, October 21, 2014, through an email sent by Dr. Matthew Zimmerman. The client’s purpose for requesting research, as stated in the email, was to learn “how to engage Recent (i.e. graduated in the last decade or so) alumni” of the College of Liberal Arts in order to “eventually lead to donations to the College of Liberal Arts on the part of these alums.” The objective for all research teams working with this client, as stated in the email, was “discovering what would interest these alums in possibly returning to Auburn for events such as tailgates and Homecoming, as well as non-football-related events.” Additionally, the email provided specific tasks for each research team. As stated by Dr. Zimmerman, the task for the authors of this research report was “to create the main survey for the client.” The process of producing the main survey and communicating and analyzing its results serve as the basis of this report. Client Information... The client representatives guiding the research were Mary Baird, the Executive Director of Development for the College of Liberal Arts, and Allyson Dozier, the Development Coordinator for the College of Liberal Arts. Based on internet research, the

SURVEY ANALYSIS OF ALUMNI RELATIONS

College of Liberal Arts’s Office of Development is one of several Offices of Development at Auburn University. The university has one primary Office of Development that oversees the Offices of Development inside each college at the university. The Offices of Development are separate from the Auburn University Alumni Association. The purpose of the Offices of Development is to connect with alumni while also encouraging monetary donations for academic scholarships and improvements to the college’s buildings and resources. The Office of Development gathers funds for several areas in financial need, and its staff is trained to help donors direct their gifts to the areas to which they wish to donate. On the website for the Office of Development for the College of Liberal Arts, there is a link that lists events the Office of Development sponsors during the year, including council meetings and tailgates that occurred in October 2014. Literature ReviewResearch designed to discover effective methods of encouraging continued alumni participation has been performed many times before the research featured in this report was carried out. The research team conducted multiple Internet searches but found searching for “alumni survey results” on www.google.com to be the most beneficial. This search yielded the more than three million results revealing that similar research has been conducted for the alumni of universities across the United States, including Cornell University in Ithaca, NY, West Virginia University in Morgantown, WV, and Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN, and more. The research team reviewed the findings from these universities and many more before narrowing the search results to three universities they felt provided important insight into creating a survey that collects relevant and

SURVEY ANALYSIS OF ALUMNI RELATIONS

accurate data. The research team analyzed alumni surveys and results from the University of Massachusetts’s Commonwealth Honors College in Amherst, MA, Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, NC, and Creighton University in Omaha, NE. The results of the University of Massachusetts’s Commonwealth Honors College alumni survey (2014) presented two survey questions the research team believed would help their survey collect relevant, accurate data- “in what year did you graduate?” and “are you overall satisfied with your university experience?” The research team used both questions in their research survey to ensure their findings represented recent alumni and the attitudes of those alumni. The results of the Wake Forest University’s alumni survey (2013) also presented two survey questions the research team believed would help their survey collect relevant, accurate data- “what is your age?” and “what is your gender?” The Wake Forest University alumni survey provided five age ranges as answer options to the question “what is your age?”: 20-30 years old; 30-40 years old; 40-50 years old; 50-60 years old; and 60 years old and older. The research team utilized this question-answer structure in the survey it created. However, because the respondents of their alumni survey were recent graduates, the research team provided one less age range as an answer option to this question: 20-29 years old; 30-39 years old; 40-49 years old; and 50 years and older. Creighton University’s alumni survey (2011) also presented two survey questions the research team believed would help their survey collect relevant, accurate data- “what kinds of events would you prefer to attend in your region?” and “what events have you participated in in the past two years?” These questions influenced the research team’s decision to include the questions “why do you visit Auburn University?” and “what

SURVEY ANALYSIS OF ALUMNI RELATIONS

events would you be interested in attending on Auburn University’s campus?” Also, like the Creighton University alumni survey, the research team provided a list of campus events as answer options to the latter question. In addition to alumni surveys conducted by other universities, several scholars have conducted similar research about alumni-university relations. The research team found the article Future Trends in Alumni Relations by Dr. Susan C. Dolbert (2002) to be especially insightful to the logistics behind these unique types of relationships. First, according to Dolbert, people working for alumni associations must have a skill set that is broad and deep and must be visionaries who also understand the importance of attention to detail (Dolbert, 2002 p. 3). These characteristics influenced the amount of thought and scrutiny the research team used when composing the questions and answer options on the survey. Another key point addressed by Dolbert is the importance of communication between institutions and alumni. Dolbert claims communication is one of the most important goals recognized throughout alumni relations because alumni associations participate in and excel at communication more than any other part of an institution (Dolbert, 2002 p. 8). With that said, the research team designed the survey and constructed each question while keeping the objective of clear communication in mind. Communication almost every element of the survey, including the words chosen for each question and the order in which the questions were presented. In her discussion of programs, Dolbert revealed there is no one certain way that is best for program delivery, but instead the most effective method is largely situational and should ultimately focus on encouraging alumni involvement (Dolbert, 2002 p. 9).

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Involvement after graduation is beneficial to not only the alumni but to the university as well, especially because the degree to which an alumni is involved with the institution is an indicator of the likelihood of that alumni eventually donating to the university (Dolbert, 2002 p. 9). These points influenced the research team’s decision to include a question inquiring about respondents’ household incomes and questions asking how respondents are currently involved with Auburn University. MethodologyAfter receiving the assignment from the client, the College of Liberal Arts Office of Development, the researchers first had to create a survey that would suit their specific requests and needs. Their request was fairly simple: how can the College of Liberal Arts stay connected with its graduates through various events and with the use of social media, as well as gain potential donors. As the research team, it was important that every survey question would be pertinent information for the client to use to further their connection with the young alumni. The researchers asked 18 questions in the survey. These questions were able to focus on getting young alumni involved in future events for the College of Liberal Arts. The researchers chose questions based on demographics, his or her experience at Auburn as a student and his or her continued involvement at the university of the respondents. Each question had a purpose and meaning behind why they were chosen. Question1: What year did you graduate from Auburn University? This question was chosen so that the researchers could see when the participants graduated form Auburn University.

SURVEY ANALYSIS OF ALUMNI RELATIONS

Question 2: What is your College of Liberal Arts degree? The researchers wanted to know the most common degrees with the participants in the College of Liberal Arts. This question also helps with future questions in the survey. Question 3: Are you currently employed? If so, what is your job? Asking about the participant’s employment and where they are employed tells the researchers if their degree is relatable and useful for the job they have. This is important in finding out if their degree is being used. Question 4: Where do you live? Knowing where the participant lives lets the researchers know where alumni are moving and possibly getting jobs. This question helps in determining where events for alumni should be help in the future. Question 5: How often do you visit Auburn? This question gave a range of numbers for participants to choose from. It ranged from 1-16+ times a year. The purpose of this question is to get a general idea how involved or uninvolved the participant is at Auburn University. Question 6: Why do you visit Auburn? The reason the researchers chose this question was to determine if the participant was involved and why they were coming to Auburn. The researchers could put this information with the information from question five to see what was driving regulars to come versus the people who rarely came and what they were coming for. Question 7: The College of Liberal Arts is in the process of planning alumni events. Please select three of the following events or programs you would be most interested in attending. This question gave participants options that ranged from a

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8 Â

Â networking event all the way to a tailgate. The purpose of this question was to see what participants wanted and what they would like to attend when visiting Auburn. Question 8: Would you attend a College of Liberal Arts alumni event in a city other than Auburn? If so, which major city (Atlanta, Montgomery, Birmingham, Other)? The purpose of this question is to see where alumni would like to travel and how far they would travel to an event. This question goes along with where they live. The researchers can use this information to try and plan an event near alumni in various cities around the United States. Question 9: What is your average household income? The researchers chose this question with no intentions of asking for money. The goal of this question was to see what young alumni are making and relate that to previous questions about their education at Auburn. This question was put in the middle of the survey instead of the front because the goal was not to get donations or ask for money from young alumni. Starting a survey with a money question can irritate participants and possibly lead them to not completing the survey. The next sets of questions were Likert Scale questions. The participants were able to choose from strongly agree, agree, neutral, disagree and strongly disagree. These types of questions determine more of the feeling and emotions toward a particular question. Question 10: I feel my College of Liberal Arts degree from Auburn University has prepared me for my current job. The purpose of this question was to see how participants felt about their degree at Auburn University. If they thought it was useful for their current job or if it was pointless.

SURVEY ANALYSIS OF ALUMNI RELATIONS Question 11: I am satisfied with my education from Auburn University. This question goes along with question 10 but on a more broad aspect. This helped determined if they are happy with what they learned at Auburn University. Question 12: I would recommend pursuing a degree from the College of Liberal

Arts at Auburn University for current students. The purpose of this question was to see if alumni enjoyed their education at Auburn University. This question ties closely with question 10 and 11. If someone is satisfied with their degree and use their degree in their job they are more likely to talk highly about Auburn University and recommend an education at the institute. Question 13: I believe it is very important to stay connected with Auburn University’s College of Liberal Arts. Asking this question allows the researchers to know whether or not alumni are interested in being connected with the College of Liberal Arts, which is the reasoning for this survey. This particular question is where the researchers can use the information from the survey to determine where to go for future plans. Question 14: How are you currently connected to Auburn University? The purpose behind this question was to help the researchers understand what alumni are already involved in on campus. Then researchers would be able to determine what areas are untouched and need to be worked on.

The options that were given ranged

from sporting events to donating to not being connected in any way. Questions 15: How would you like the College of Liberal Arts to communicate with you? The purpose of this question was to see what the best outlet of communication was for alumni. Participants were able to choose social media, email,

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telephone calls and mail. Knowing what kind of communication outlet best suits young alumni will help in keeping alumni involved and up to date on what’s going on. Question 16: Is there an event you would like to see the College of Liberal Arts host? This question was open ended and allowed participants to give suggestions. This lets the participants know that the office of development is interested in their ideas and wants their feedback. Question 17: Are you male or female? This was a simple demographic question that allowed the researchers to see the ratio of men and women that graduated in the College of Liberal Arts. Question 18: How old are you? The information from this question allowed the researchers to see what age participants were. All of these questions served a purpose in the survey. Each question was thought about carefully and put in the survey for a particular reason. Each question built on each other in determining how to get alumni involved in the College of Liberal Arts. Once the survey questions were written, a draft had to be sent to Allyson Dozier and Mary Baird, the client, for them to evaluate and provide their feedback. Questions were revised for clarity, deleted for insignificance or added to provide more information about the alumni’s connectivity to the College of Liberal Arts. The next step of the research process was to write a Request for Proposal (RFP) for Dozier and Baird. A general RFP as stated in the textbook, Primer of Public Relations Research, says, “ The RFP seeks to first advertise your research needs and then to invite interested parties – researchers (both academic and professional) or research firms – to bid on your research project(s). (Stacks, 2011).” Thus, the RFP sent to the client was

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considered a response to their initial request for research. The RFP email gives the client an overall summary of the survey, the researchers expectations from the survey and an attachment of the newly, revised survey. Once the survey was completed and created in Qualtrics, a final meeting was held with the client to clarify any confusion and discuss the distribution portion of the research process. With more than 10,000 alumni email addresses in the College of Liberal Arts database, the list was spilt between two research teams. After removing the “do not contact” addresses, the researchers had the survey emailed to 4,438 potential participants. The survey was available for two weeks until it was closed to gather the results. Of the 4,438 participants, the researches were able to gather information from more than 300 people, which provided a decent number to capture a general consensus from the population. Using Qualtrics helped the researchers gather the statistics quickly and accurately except for the open-ended questions, which had to be tallied by hand. The answers from the open-ended questions were grouped together based on some common ground from the participants. This still provided an accurate depiction of the needs/wants from the alumni that participated in the survey. Lastly in the methodology process, all the results and findings were recorded in the form of graphs and charts. Using graphs and charts to represent the questions and answers allows the researcher and the client to mentally process the data more easily. ResultsData collected by the researchers from the survey was carefully analyzed in hopes of providing very useful information for the College of Liberal Arts Office of Development. Of the 4,438 potential participants, 329 alumni completed the survey,

SURVEY ANALYSIS OF ALUMNI RELATIONS most in the targeted age group. For this reason, researchers were satisfied with

results because they felt that the target group was well represented and that survey results would provide an accurate representation of action that can be taken to further involve this group of alumni. Sixty-‐one percent of survey respondents were in the 21-‐29 age bracket. Thirty-‐six percent of respondents were in the 30-‐39 age bracket. The total percentage of “young alumni” who took the survey was ninety-‐seven percent, while only three percent were forty and above. The majority of survey respondents are female (68%), but there were thirty-‐two percent of respondents that were male.

Eighty-‐eight percent of survey respondents were employed, with jobs

ranging from county commissioner to financial analyst and public relations manager. A vast majority of respondents reported visiting Auburn 1-‐5 times per year (68%). Researchers were surprised to learn that 16% of respondents visited Auburn 16 times or more each year. This group of respondents was followed closely by the portion of respondents visiting six to ten times per year (11%) and the group of respondents

Visits to Auburn

visiting eleven to fifteen times per 1-‐5 times per year

year with six

6-‐10 times per year

percent.

11-‐15 times per year 16+ times per year

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An overwhelming majority of these visits were for athletic events, as the

researchers suspected. Respondents indicated an interest in other events including: forums, weddings, musical performances, social visits and work-‐related events. Because so many College of Liberal Arts alumni visit for athletic reasons, researchers were not surprised by the seventy-‐four percent of alumni interested in a tailgate before a home game. Forty-‐three percent of respondents were interested in a continuing education conference, while thirty-‐eight

Reasons for Visiting

percent were interested in a picnic lunch on Samford Lawn. Seven percent of

Lives in Auburn Social Reasons Work Related Reasons Don't Visit Auburn

respondents were open to ideas for involvement and twenty percent were interested in a reception following a theater performance. More than half of respondents were interested in participating in an alumni mentorship program.

College of Liberal Arts alumni are located all over the world, and in most

major cities in the United States. One respondent to the survey is in Japan, and another in Germany. Of the respondents still on U.S. soil, seventy-‐five percent of said they would attend a College of Liberal Arts event in a city other than Auburn.

SURVEY ANALYSIS OF ALUMNI RELATIONS Survey

Connectivity Importance

respondents listed places as far away

150

as California and

100

New York, and as

close to Auburn as

Atlanta,

Strongly Disagree Neither Disagree

Agree

Strongly Agree

Montgomery, Mobile and Birmingham. Some survey respondents indicated that they would be willing to fly into a major city for an event. (i.e., New York to Atlanta, Nashville to Atlanta) The survey did indicate that the highest concentration of College of Liberal Arts Alumni are in Alabama (37%).

Most survey respondents were involved with Auburn in some way. Only

forty-‐one respondents responded to the survey that they were not currently involved. Alumni connectedness included athletics events, donations, family, alumni programs, social events, work-‐related reasons and some non-‐sporting events. Survey respondents also expressed a belief that connectedness to the College of Liberal Arts is important after moving into the workplace.

The majority of alumni respondents were satisfied or highly satisfied with

their degree from the College of Liberal Arts. A very small portion of respondents were dissatisfied with their College of Liberal Arts degree, or their level of preparedness for their current job as a graduate of the college. Likewise, a very

SURVEY ANALYSIS OF ALUMNI RELATIONS small portion of survey respondents said they would not recommend a College of Liberal Arts degree.

Suggestions 14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0

Alumni respondents were asked to specifically describe events that they would like to attend. Responses ranged from mentoring opportunities, to box seats at a football game, to dinners in Washington, D.C. and a day on campus to visit with old professors.

Household Income Less than $25,000 $25,000-‐$50,000 $51,000-‐$75,000 $76,000-‐$99,000 $100,000+ No response

While the purpose of the survey was not to determine household income and current donation potential, researchers chose to ask for respondents to disclose and average household income to help determine future ability to participate in events and future willingness to donate. Nine percent of respondents had a household income of less than $25,000.

SURVEY ANALYSIS OF ALUMNI RELATIONS

Forty-‐two percent of respondents have an average houseold income of between %25,000 and $75,000. Eleven percent did not choose to respond and twenty-‐two percent of respondents had an average household income of more than $100,000. ConclusionWhat we could have changed: •

State the purpose of the survey more clearly

•

Add an intro on the actual hardcore survey stating mission and purpose to explain to the respondent that is taking it.

•

Preliminary question with predetermined responses that would enable or prevent the respondent from taking the survey i.e. if the respondent is not a college of liberal arts graduate with an approved set of credentials

•

Change the year graduated to where the respondent does not have to type it in, instead type in ranges to condense data.

•

Do not include the option of saying “zero” in how much the respondent visits Auburn. Make I don’t visit Auburn an option. If they answer that, ask if and or why they are restricted from returning to campus such as having young children, too far of distance, busy work schedule, finances, etc. After analyzing the responses from the survey, we realize there are a few things

we could have added to improve the overall quality of the experiment. First, we could have stated the overall purpose of the survey more clearly by adding a short intro on the actual survey to explain the mission and purpose to the potential respondent. Second, we could have included a preliminary question with predetermined responses that would enable or prevent the respondent from participating in the survey if he or she was not a

SURVEY ANALYSIS OF ALUMNI RELATIONS

College of Liberal Arts graduate. Also, we would have changed the year-graduated question from having the respondent typing in the year to having there be multiple choices with different ranges of years. This would have condensed the number of responses and grouped the data into sorted parts instead of there being 50 different answers. Lastly, we didn’t include the option of saying, “zero” or “I don’t ever visit Auburn” on the visitation question. If we could edit the survey we would add that and if the respondent chose that answer choice we would then prompt them with a separate question that asks if and why they are restricted from returning to campus for reasons such as having young children, too far of distance, having a busy work schedule, or not having adequate disposable income. (1 minute) EmailThe down side of electronic communication is with the use of blast emails for alumni. “Spam” has become horrific and alumni associations must take every precaution that their communication with alumni is of value and not viewed as an intrusion. Our research shows that all alumni prefer email communication, and while this is particularly true for Generations X and Y, NO ONE wants spam in their mailbox. What this says to us is that we must develop policies for use of email that are both well thought out and thoughtful of our alumni. PrintMany alumni officers have begun to question whether the time has come for us to abandon print communications to our alumni. The benchmarking survey mentioned previously found that more than 60% of alumni say they read their alumni magazines frequently. In addition, the study found out that alumni perceive that they are

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INVOLVED with their alma maters if they read their magazines, but this is not yet true for email (186th Australian International Education Conference, Hobart, 30 September to 4 October 2002 9 of 14). And, as research both with this benchmarking survey and in other studies shows, alumni involvement is positively related to giving. Face to Face: And, research has shown that alumni have emotional attachments to their alma maters based on relationships established while students. Another factor influences the need for alumni relations to continue to focus on face-to face communication. That factor is the increasing proportion of our alumni who are female, and that research has shown females have a greater interest in “high touch” and respond at a higher rate to personal “asks” or invitations. Successful Alumni association responsibilities include: 1) Identifying and tracking of alumni. 2) Informing alumni regularly about the alma mater and keeping them “attached” to her. 3) Developing or increasing interest in the alma mater both through communications and programming. 4) Involving alumni in the life of the university, whenever and wherever possible. 5) Providing meaningful opportunities for alumni to give back – to invest in future alumni or in the future of the institution.

SURVEY ANALYSIS OF ALUMNI RELATIONS Correspondences-

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Â Works Cited Dolbert, S. C. (2002, September). Future trends in alumni relations. In Australian International Education Conference. Retrieved May (Vol. 3, p. 2006). Stacks, D. W. (2011). Primer of public relations research. New York City, NY: The Guilford Press. Alumni Survey Results. (2014). Retrieved December 1, 2014, from https:// www.honors.umass.edu/sites/honors.umass.edu/files/u7/CHC%20Alumni%20Surve %20Results%20Brochure%20FINAL.pdf College of Liberal Arts- Office of Development. (2014, July 29). Retrieved December 2, 2014, from http://www.cla.auburn.edu/cla/development/ Creighton Alumni. (n.d.). Retrieved December 9, 2014, from http://alumni.creighton.edu/s/1250/alumni/2colR.aspx?sid=1250&gid=1&pgid=1044 Edwards, G. (2013, May 29). Alumni Engagement Survey Results. Retrieved December 2, 2014, from http://alumni.wfu.edu/2013/05/alumni-engagement-survey-results/ Office of Development: Welcome. (2014, March 31). Retrieved December 3, 2014, from https://develop.auburn.edu/